Just a quick post as I watch “Rouge One,” the best Star Wars film to date. The Prequiles lacked good direction and had poor dialogue. Though “Revenge of the Sith” was better than the first two. They are enjoyable. “A New Hope” was a great story and, despite (again) poor direction for the actors was a ground-breaking film in its time. The following two of the middle trilogy were worthy films with much better direction. George Lucus is imaginative as hell but couldn’t dialogue his way out of a wet paper bag.

The third trilogy films had excellent acting. But they had inconsistent stories between them. And “The Force Awakens” was derivative. It was just lazy writing. While most die-hard Star Wars fans hate “The Last Jedi,” as did some of the actors, I found it to be the strongest of the last three. The loss of faith Luke experiences is relatable. As is his finding it. Plus, it was nice to see Yoda. “The Rise of Skywalker” didn’t suck, but it also suffered from lazy writing. Plus, the title makes no sense whatsoever.

Got to admit that I’m loving Halo on Paramount+.

“We are what they grow beyond.“

Gotta admit, Yoda’s got the best philosophy.

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

My particular favorite.

But once was enough. I mean, damn, it’s a long movie. Two complaints (length is not one of them); cyborg was the weakest character and not enough of Jared Leto’s Joker.

I get it about my second complaint – the Joker had no place in the story’s central part. Also, I sense that the Joker’s makeup will be less heavy should he be included in a movie made by Zack Snyder. I’m not going to give any spoilers, so you’ll have to watch the film yourself to understand better.

I found every scene with Superman/Clark Kent not only watchable but enjoyable. Also, the best of Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne/Batman was on display. And this brings me to my first complaint: Ray Fisher didn’t have the chops to make Cyborg more convincing. And the writers hammed up the character’s story arc. I know there’s press that Wheadon is the cause of Ray Fisher’s lack of stardom, but that’s more hype than fact. What I saw in the HBO version did not justify any claims of Ray Fisher deserving megastar billing.

Ultimately, a much more cohesive film than the theatrical release. The cause of lack of cohesion – two directors of totally different voices. And Wheadon didn’t have his heart in directing his parts of the theatrical version. Too close after the “Avengers” movies? He admitted to feeling burned out and used up by Marvel after “Age of Ultron.” And I am not going to put the failure of the theatrical release solely at the feet of Josh. Wheadon has a lighter, breezier voice than Zack. However, I suspect producers forced Wheadon to ignore the darker tone initially crafted by Snyder. Producers have a lot to do with the look and feel of a movie, especially when they micromanage.

I’m watching “Die Hard.” Yes, I know. It’s not Christmas yet. It’s still Halloween. But, what the hell. I’m feeling roguish. Besides, any holiday is a good holiday to watch Alan Rickman be the antagonist.

Nook has crashed. They did an update yesterday, and now I cannot access any of my Nook Books. Thankfully, I’ve got quite a few already downloaded onto a couple of my devices. But I cannot download any that I had saved to the cloud. Nor can I see my list of books at Barnes & Noble’s website. There’s no contacting them on the weekend, which is rather strange – not the best of customer service. They don’t even have a forum where you can talk to other customers to see if they are also having the same problems. They shut them down in 2017. That’s crap.

I have over 100 books on the Nook. So, yeah, this is not cool. I use my Nook daily. I had just started re-reading the Harry Potter series.

Don’t get me wrong. I like my Nook. I like that I can carry my entire library in a simple, small device. It makes reading much more convenient. However, I’m beginning to wonder about the leadership of Barnes & Noble. It appears that online customer service is not even a consideration. This is the 21st Century, after all. An online presence is expected. And I don’t mean just sales; I also expect service for any problems. And that includes communicating any problems.

It’s still around. And in HD!